LAWRENCE, Kan. — This morning, as I was driving from Kansas City to Lawrence in my car “Black Beauty,” who will travel her 222,000th mile this week, listening to D.H.T.’s remake of the Roxette song “Listen To Your Heart” on the radio, I began to get nostalgic. Reflecting on the good old days before “pop” and MTV came in and practically decimated music and my beloved medium of television.

I wonder if most teens even realize that the MTV is an abbreviation for Music Television. What music?! It has instead become a brand that seeks to capitalize off of all that is “pop,” more recently accepting the responsibility of defining “pop” – music and culture – in the first place. With the notable exceptions of Beth McCarthy Miller, Carson Daly and Jon Stewart, MTV has produced mediocrity in massive quantities, people with no hope for survival in broadcast television. The network has become far too big, no longer emphasizing music as it was intended to when it launched in the early 1980′s.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Late Show with David Letterman: Led by the premiere host in late-night television, the Late Show did a superb job last Wednesday when actor Russell Crowe appeared on the show after his arrest last week for throwing a telephone at a New York hotel worker. If Johnny Carson is the eternal King of Late Night, then David Letterman is its Crowned Prince. Letterman is by far the best interviewer of all late-night talk show hosts, and his star shone bright when he appropriately conducted a compassionate, serious interview, infused with a perfect amount of humor. Regardless of ratings, Late Show with David Letterman is qualitatively far superior to any of its competition. Even technical-director-turned-director Jerry Foley, who is often lacking in his ability to direct a music performance, rose to the occasion with a commendable job on Paul Anka’s jazzed up rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Television by Scott A. Winer